Dad Learns That Unborn Twin 'Fathered' His Son

In this file photo, a scientist works with DNA samples in a laboratory. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

(Newser)
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Sorry sir, you're not the father of your newborn child—your unborn brother is. So a 34-year-old man was told in the only known case of a paternity test being tricked by a so-called "human chimera," the Independent reports. It began when a US couple learned that their son, born healthy in 2014 with the aid of a fertility clinic, had a different blood type than his parents. Concerned, the husband took an at-home paternity test and learned that his DNA didn't match the son's. "You can imagine the parents were pretty upset," Stanford University geneticist Barry Starr tells BuzzFeed. "They thought the clinic had used the wrong sperm." The clinic assured them there was no mix-up, so the couple got a lawyer and approached Starr for help. On Starr's advice, the father and son took DNA ancestry tests and learned that genetically the dad was his son's uncle.

In other words, the dad was a "human chimera" who had soaked up the genes of a twin that perished in the womb, then passed them on to the son. Starr saw further evidence of chimerism in the father's skin (which was two-toned in dark and light strips) and a DNA test of his semen, which identified a slight father-son genetic match of 10%. Human chimerism isn't new, though: It's been seen on TV shows like CSI and in real-life cases, like a mom who took a DNA test for a kidney transplant and learned she wasn't the biological mother of two of her sons, or another woman who got similar news after submitting a DNA sample for welfare payments, the Daily Beast reports. "Human chimerism is very common, but exquisitely difficult to identify, coming to light almost exclusively by accidents like this," a biologist says. (DNA tests have also opened more Shroud of Turin mysteries.)

Good thing the dad waited and didn't take out his frustrations on what he probably thought was a cheating whorre of a wife

MJ

Feb 2, 2016 8:56 PM CST

Here is the first case, this man is not the first case http://amicuscuria.com/wordpress/?p=12745

MJ

Feb 2, 2016 8:53 PM CST

This isn't the first case, there is a mother in Wisconsin who was accused of Welfare fraud. She had children on welfare, and due to some medical issues they collected blood samples. The doctors said that there was no way those were here children, and she was reported for welfare fraud (using other's children to get government money). She was pregnant at the time, and she swore up and down she birthed the other children. During the delivery of the next child the state placed someone in the delivery room to verify she delivered the child. They verified she did, however the DNA test said the child wasn't hers. She was already facing jail time, when a doctor in Boston figured it out. The DNA was that of her unborn twin